One of the things I like about living in Bosnia is the way in which life seems that much, um, closer. There is no hiding from the fact that sometimes life isn't very nice. From the Roma kids begging at traffic lights, to the amputees sitting outside of the supermarket in subzero temperatures, to the very visible levels of poverty there is plenty of evidence that life can be very very hard.
Adam is curious about all of this. He regularly asks questions along the lines of why is that boy is begging? why does that man not have a leg? why are people cutting down the trees in the park? why can't that boy buy a new toy scooter? why doesn't that girl have a Daddy? Why does that dog not have a home? We discuss all his questions and I try to explain in language that he understands that not everyone is as lucky as we are, sometimes these not very nice things do happen. He does think about all these conversations and I'm often surprised when a few days later he returns to the topic to talk about it a bit more. I try to be open and honest about everything and have been amazed by his ability to process what we are talking about. He is genuinely interested in what is going on around him and has a young child's natural curiosity to take on board all these different things.
Having watched all this, I have been following with a degree of interest the furore surrounding the appointment of a disabled presenter for the BBC's childrens channel, CBeebies. Some adults have complained that she gives their children nightmares and are preventing their children from watching the channel when she is presenting (see more here about this story). As you might imagine, a whole lot of people have had something to say about this. On the whole people support the presenter and rightly add that children need to be exposed to difference in order to counter future prejudice and discrimination. But I would add that further to that, children are interested in the world and to ban them from seeing something that makes that world a more diverse, and therefore interesting, place seems to me to be a real shame.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Monday, 9 March 2009
Woman's Day
Yesterday, March 8th, was Woman's Day. This occasion had previously passed me by, but in Bosnia it is a BIG deal. All day I saw men wandering around clasping flowers, chocolates, little cutsie trinket things for the women in their lives. Women are allowed to finish work early and they go and have their hair done, wear new outfits and generally glam it up. When I dropped the boys off at nursery this morning their teachers rushed up to wish me a Happy Woman's Day. It's a sort of combination between Valentines Day and Mothers Day, and I have to say that I quite like the idea of having one celebration for it all, that everyone can participate in.
Obviously I spent the day relaxing at a spa, to return to a clean house, walked dog, cleaned and fed children before relaxing in a bath of rose petals supping champagne and luxuriating in my own gorgeousness. Or maybe not.
Obviously I spent the day relaxing at a spa, to return to a clean house, walked dog, cleaned and fed children before relaxing in a bath of rose petals supping champagne and luxuriating in my own gorgeousness. Or maybe not.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
letting some steam out of the pressure cooker
The pressure cooker that is the Bosnian political world appears to have eased somewhat in recent days. The American Assistant Secretary in charge of the Balkans, Stuart Jones, met with the President of the RS (the Serb half of Bosnia) and following the meeting talks of splitting Bosnia in two appear to have stopped. Experienced followers of Bosnian politics have commented wryly that the Bosnian Serb leader, Dodik, is an experienced political operator so the majority are taking a 'we shall wait and see' attitude. The Bosnians, whilst enjoying a relaxation in the tensions, haven't missed that it is the Americans who have managed to provide a respite and the European Union who has control of OHR, and is therefore responsible for overseeing the country, seems to be without political will to act in Bosnia. More on this here). As an aside, the saga of the appointment of a new High Representative continues. Rumour has it that the Russians and Serbs opposed the appointment of a Brit to the post, and now an Austrian is in the running - see more here.
Friday, 6 March 2009
The TV1000 game
When we were thinking about coming out here we amassed a vast collection of DVDs that we could watch in the evening, thinking that we would be unable to watch much TV here. Turns out we were wrong. Not only can we get pretty much any film and TV series here on DVD for a fraction of the price (and I mean a tiny tiny fraction) but most of the films shown here are in English with subtitles so we can watch them anyway.
We also have Cable TV which has a number of English speaking channels. There is the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and some other ones that I don't know what they are. To get our news fix we can sometimes catch the English language Al Jezera news channel and we did once manage to get Sky News. Otherwise newswise we are left with CNN which raises my blood pressure nightly and I have to resist throwing things at the TV, particularly at the weather reporters who take annoying to a whole new level.
There are a few film channels too: Turner Classic Movies, TV1000 and a few others all show decent films. We've had a Robert de Niro season, a Britflicks moment, Thrillers weekend, Moulin Rouge and other musicals.
We have no idea where to get a schedule for what is going to be shown on these channels, so it is a bit hit and miss whether we actually work out what is on and when. We do know that TV 1000 will always start a new film at 10pm, so a new, unmissable game has developed. Whatever else we are doing at the time, D and I congregate in front of the TV to name that film as the opening credits roll. We are helped in our mission that TV1000 does like to show the same films a lot, so before the studio name has faded from the screen we have already guessed 'Robocop!' 'Die Hard!' 'Die Hard 2!' ' Terminator' and bizarrely 'The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover!'
We also have Cable TV which has a number of English speaking channels. There is the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and some other ones that I don't know what they are. To get our news fix we can sometimes catch the English language Al Jezera news channel and we did once manage to get Sky News. Otherwise newswise we are left with CNN which raises my blood pressure nightly and I have to resist throwing things at the TV, particularly at the weather reporters who take annoying to a whole new level.
There are a few film channels too: Turner Classic Movies, TV1000 and a few others all show decent films. We've had a Robert de Niro season, a Britflicks moment, Thrillers weekend, Moulin Rouge and other musicals.
We have no idea where to get a schedule for what is going to be shown on these channels, so it is a bit hit and miss whether we actually work out what is on and when. We do know that TV 1000 will always start a new film at 10pm, so a new, unmissable game has developed. Whatever else we are doing at the time, D and I congregate in front of the TV to name that film as the opening credits roll. We are helped in our mission that TV1000 does like to show the same films a lot, so before the studio name has faded from the screen we have already guessed 'Robocop!' 'Die Hard!' 'Die Hard 2!' ' Terminator' and bizarrely 'The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover!'
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
boys will be boys
Adam is newly obsessed with guns. Everything he has that can be pointed at someone is now a gun. Occasionally we branch out and it becomes a sword, but mainly it is a gun. Because Adam is obsessed with guns, Luke is too so I now have 2 small boys running around at full speed trying to shoot everything that they see.
Accompanying the shooting noises are shrieks of delight and screams of "oooby ooooby". For quite a long time I thought this was a part of the made-up language that Adam quite often uses when he is playing (which I do find quite interesting; he doesn't understand everything that is going on around him, so he makes up his own words and sounds instead). It was only yesterday that I actually listened to him and realised that ooooby oooby was in fact ubi! ubi! - Bosnian for Kill! Kill!
On the bright side he is undoubtedly talking to the other kids and learning Bosnian.
Accompanying the shooting noises are shrieks of delight and screams of "oooby ooooby". For quite a long time I thought this was a part of the made-up language that Adam quite often uses when he is playing (which I do find quite interesting; he doesn't understand everything that is going on around him, so he makes up his own words and sounds instead). It was only yesterday that I actually listened to him and realised that ooooby oooby was in fact ubi! ubi! - Bosnian for Kill! Kill!
On the bright side he is undoubtedly talking to the other kids and learning Bosnian.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
A British Ex-pat DISASTER
A great catastrophe has occurred, that only a British ex-pat can truly understand. It is making me wonder if we should go home. Life as I know it can not really continue. It has been an oversight of such catastrophic proportions that I can't believe I didn't see it coming. I'm in deep mourning and feeling pretty jittery.
We have run out of Marmite.
(note to the non-British readers of the blog who don't have a clue what marmite is: it is a black tar like substance which we spread, thinly, on toast. No one outside of the UK can understand the obsession with it and most non-Brits think it is utterly disgusting. It does look pretty foul and doesn't really smell that great either. We adore it.)
We have run out of Marmite.
(note to the non-British readers of the blog who don't have a clue what marmite is: it is a black tar like substance which we spread, thinly, on toast. No one outside of the UK can understand the obsession with it and most non-Brits think it is utterly disgusting. It does look pretty foul and doesn't really smell that great either. We adore it.)
Monday, 2 March 2009
spring into actions
Last weekend we spent most of our time building snowforts, throwing snowballs and sledging. This weekend we haven't needed to put on a jacket.
Spring has arrived, and although we're not ruling out a return to some miserable weather, right now the good people in Tuzla are out enjoying the sunshine, seeing to their gardens, doing a spot of DIY, having picnics, congregating in the cafes which have suddenly appeared outside and generally enjoying the first day of spring.
It would appear that with the arrival of warmer weather comes the season of citizen protests and actions. We popped along to one such event on Saturday. The Tuzla Blind Association had organised a day of action to highlight how difficult it can be to negotiate some of the streets in central Tuzla when you can't see. They were putting blindfolds onto people (including a number of fairly high level politicians) and letting them try to walk along the Korzo (the central pedestrianised drag in town).
Adam was intrigued. He didn't want to try it out himself, but he was thrilled to be able to help guide me when I was temporarily without sight. He took his responsibilities very seriously and negotiated me up and down the Korzo at some speed, rather faster than I was totally comfortable with, but with no accidents.
Having shown our very responsible and helpful 3 year old at his best, Jessie then let the side down somewhat. Spotting an abandoned chicken wrapper across the way, she charged across the flow of unsighted people and gave us a clear demonstration of exactly why she will never be a guide dog for the blind.
Spring has arrived, and although we're not ruling out a return to some miserable weather, right now the good people in Tuzla are out enjoying the sunshine, seeing to their gardens, doing a spot of DIY, having picnics, congregating in the cafes which have suddenly appeared outside and generally enjoying the first day of spring.
It would appear that with the arrival of warmer weather comes the season of citizen protests and actions. We popped along to one such event on Saturday. The Tuzla Blind Association had organised a day of action to highlight how difficult it can be to negotiate some of the streets in central Tuzla when you can't see. They were putting blindfolds onto people (including a number of fairly high level politicians) and letting them try to walk along the Korzo (the central pedestrianised drag in town).
Adam was intrigued. He didn't want to try it out himself, but he was thrilled to be able to help guide me when I was temporarily without sight. He took his responsibilities very seriously and negotiated me up and down the Korzo at some speed, rather faster than I was totally comfortable with, but with no accidents.
Having shown our very responsible and helpful 3 year old at his best, Jessie then let the side down somewhat. Spotting an abandoned chicken wrapper across the way, she charged across the flow of unsighted people and gave us a clear demonstration of exactly why she will never be a guide dog for the blind.
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